ABSTRACT
This is the major theoretical contribution of the book. It takes insights from physical time theory, especially from the quantum sciences, and translates them for the social world. In doing so, it proposes a new temporal model with the specific aim of reconciling the subjective and scientific positions. It shows how a set of objective, measurable events can produce multiple subjective experiences. There are three conceptual components to this new model and this chapter explains each of them, in turn. The first is interactionism, an ontological theory that rejects objects in favour of event-based assemblages. The second is differentiation, which is derived from social systems theory and can explain how local subjective-temporal experiences are realised. The third idea is perspectivism, which originated in response to the Bergson–Einstein debate and can explain how differentiation and relative position can produce different temporal experiences from the same interaction events. These three ideas are aligned with both the subjective and scientific positions; in the process, time is realised as a subjective-scientific assemblage of different perspectives – a universal becoming always experienced locally.
